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University Place Presents

James Campbell, Author and Journalist, joins University Place Presents host Norman Gilliland to discuss his adventure in a 56 foot long, traditional Hawaiian sailing canoe, using only the stars as a navigational tool. Campbell and a photographer sailed 2500 miles across the central Pacific with sailors from the island of Satawal.

Dean Strang, Adjunct Professor, UW Law School and Marquette University, joins University Place Presents host Norman Gilliland to look back at the 1917 bombing of a Milwaukee police station that killed nine officers and a civilian. Eleven Italian immigrants were tried and charged based on an unrelated event. Clarence Darrow led an appeal that freed most of the convicted men.

Jerry Apps, Author and Professor Emeritus, UW-Madison, discusses his book, “Limping through Life: A Farm Boy’s Polio Memoir” with University Place Presents host Norman Gilliland. Apps, diagnosed with polio at the age of 12, shares the emotional and physical challenges he faced and explores how he has learned not only to cope, but to succeed.

Peter Sobol, Historian of Science, joins University Place Presents host Norman Gilliland to discuss the different cultures’ beliefs pertaining to the end of the world. Sobol presents a history beginning with the Egyptians and continuing to present day.

Tom DuBois, Professor, Department of Scandinavian Studies, UW-Madison, joins University Place Presents host Norman Gilliland to delve into the art and history of encounters and connections among the Anglo-Saxons, Celts and Vikings in the years before 1066.

Penelope Niven, author of "Thornton Wilder: A Life," and Tappan Wilder, Thornton Wilder's nephew, join University Place Presents host Norman Gilliland to discuss the life and work of Pulitzer Prize winning playwright and novelist Thornton Wilder.

Leslie Bellais, Curator, Costumes and Textiles, Wisconsin Historical Society, joins University Place Presents host Norman Gilliland to share the stories behind the dresses worn by some of the most influential and fashionable Wisconsin women from the 1860s through the 1930s.

Steven Nadler, Professor, Department of Philosophy, UW-Madison, joins University Place Presents host Norman Gilliland to discuss his book, “Rembrandt’s Jews.” Nadler delves into the relationship between the painter and his Jewish neighbors.

Ron McCrea, author, joins University Place Presents host Norman Gilliland to tell the story behind Taliesin, Frank Lloyd Wright’s residence in Spring Green, WI. McCrea shares rare photographs of the residence under construction and discusses the murders and subsequent fire in August of 1914 that took the lives of Mamah Borthwick, Wright’s paramour, along with her children and four others.

Steven Nadler, Professor, Department of Philosophy at UW-Madison, joins "University Place Presents" host Norman Gilliland for a discussion of the life, times, and philosophy of seventeenth century philosopher, Rene Descartes. Nadler focuses on the mysterious background of an iconic painting of the philosopher which is hanging in the Louvre Museum in Paris.